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A caravanserai ( karvansara, Turkish
Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
 kervansaray) was a roadside inn
Inn

Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging and, usually, food and drink. They are typically located in the country or along a highway....
 where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
, and South-Eastern Europe.

typically a caravanserai was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, with a single portal wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts such as camel
Camel

Camels are even-toed ungulates within the genus Camelus. The dromedary, one-humped or Arabian camel has a single hump and is well known for its healthy low fat milk, and the Bactrian camel has two humps....
s to enter.






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Carvansara Plan


A caravanserai ( karvansara, Turkish
Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
 kervansaray) was a roadside inn
Inn

Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging and, usually, food and drink. They are typically located in the country or along a highway....
 where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
, and South-Eastern Europe.

Architecture

Most typically a caravanserai was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, with a single portal wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts such as camel
Camel

Camels are even-toed ungulates within the genus Camelus. The dromedary, one-humped or Arabian camel has a single hump and is well known for its healthy low fat milk, and the Bactrian camel has two humps....
s to enter. The courtyard was almost always open to the sky, and the inside walls of the enclosure were outfitted with a number of identical stall
Stall (enclosure)

A stall is a small enclosure of some kind, usually less enclosed than a room....
s, bays, niches, or chambers to accommodate merchants and their servants, animals, and merchandise.

Caravanserais provided water for human and animal consumption, washing, and ritual ablutions. Sometimes they even had elaborate baths. They also kept fodder
Fodder

In agriculture, fodder or animal feed is any foodstuff that is used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs....
 for animals and had shops for travellers where they could acquire new supplies. In addition, there could be shops where merchants could dispose of some of their goods.

Etymology

The word is also rendered as caravansarai or caravansary. The Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
 word karvansara is a compound word combining 'karvan (caravan
Caravan (travellers)

A caravan is a group of people traveling together, often on a trade expedition. Caravans were used mainly in desert areas and throughout the Silk Road, where traveling in groups aided in defense against bandits as well as helped to improve economies of scale in trade....
) with sara (palace, building with enclosed courts), to which the Persian suffix -yi is added. Here "caravan" means a group of traders, pilgrims, or other travelers, engaged in long distance travel.

The caravanserai was also known as a khan (Persian ???) or han (Turkish).

In music

Loreena McKennitt
Loreena McKennitt

Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, Order of Canada, OM, is a Canada singer, composer, harpist and pianist most famous for writing, recording and performing world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes....
's album An Ancient Muse
An Ancient Muse

An Ancient Muse is the seventh full-length studio album of the Canada singer, songwriter, accordionist, harpist, and pianist, Loreena McKennitt....
 features a track titled Caravanserai.
Kitaro
Kitaro

Kitaro is a Grammy award-winning Japanese musician, composer and multi-instrumentalist....
 has a song called "Caravansary" (Listen: )on his album Silk Road IV: Tenjiku/India (1983). It also appears on the albums Daylight, Moonlight: Live in Yakushiji (2002) and Best of Silk Road (2003). The term also appears in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Pirates of Penzance.

Notable caravansaries

  • Khan As'ad Pasha
    Khan As'ad Pasha

    Khan As'ad Pasha is the largest caravansary in the Old City of Damascus, covering an area of 2,500 square meters. Situated along Al-Buzuriyah Souq, it was built and named after As'ad Pasha al-Azem, the governor of Damascus, in 1751-52....
  • Khan Jaqmaq
    Khan Jaqmaq

    Khan Jaqmaq is one of the few remaining caravansarys in the Old City of Damascus. at the intersection of Street Called Straight and Suq Bab al-Barid, it was built and named after Mamluk Prince Sayf al-Din Jaqmaq al-Argunsawi, governor of Damascus, in 1419-1420....
  • Khan Sulayman Pasha
    Khan Sulayman Pasha

    Khan Sulayman Pasha is a large caravansary in the Old City of Damascus. Located in the walled city of Damascus on the eastern side of the Street Called Straight, facing Suq al-Khayyatin and Al-Buzuriyah Souq....
  • Khan Tuman
    Khan Tuman

    Khan Tuman is a large caravansary is located about fifteen kilometers south of Aleppo, on the west bank of the Quweiq River. It was built in 1189 by Ayyubid Emir Tuman Nuri as a rural khan to protect travelers on the trade route linking the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea....
  • Khan al-Tujjar (Mount Tabor)
    Khan al-Tujjar (Mount Tabor)

    HistoryKhan al-Tujjar was a caravanserai established near Mount Tabor by Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha around 1581. The reason given for its establishment was that the place was insecure for merchants and people making pilgrimage, and it was argued that if a khan was built, the place would become "inhabited and cultivated."...
  • Khan al-Tujjar (Nablus)
    Khan al-Tujjar (Nablus)

    Khan al-Tujjar is a 15th century caravanserai in the Palestinian city of Nablus. Situated the Nablus#Old City, it has been noted as the finest khan in the region....
  • Khan al-Umdan
    Khan al-Umdan

    Khan al-Umdan , also known as the Kh?n-i-'Av?mid, is the largest and best preserved Caravanserai in Israel. Located in the Old City of akko, it is one of the prominent projects constructed during the reign of Jezzar Pasha....
  • Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh
    Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh

    The Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh is a large Caravanserai located in the city of Qazvin in Qazvin Province of Iran.Built during the Qajar era, the caravanserai is one of Persia's best preserved urban caravanserais....
  • Rabati Malik Caravanserai
    Rabati Malik Caravanserai

    Category:AsiaCategory: Uzbekistan...


Gallery





See also

  • Islamic architecture
    Islamic architecture

    Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the History of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture....
  • Turkish architecture
  • Persian architecture


Further reading

  • Branning, Katharine. 2002. . www.Turkishhan.org, New York, USA.
  • Encyclopedia Iranica, p.798-802
  • Erdmann, Kurt, Erdmann, Hanna. 1961. Das anatolische Karavansaray des 13. Jahrhunderts, 3 vols. Berlin: Mann, 1976, ISBN 3-7861-2241-5
  • Hillenbrand, Robert. 1994. Islamic Architecture: Form, function and meaning. NY: Columbia University Press. (see Chapter VI for an in depth overview of the caravanserai).
  • Kiani, Mohammad Yusef. 1976. Reprinted from: Traditions Architecturales en Iran, Tehran, No. 2 & 3, 1976.
  • Yavuz, Aysil Tükel. 1997. The Concepts that Shape Anatolian Seljuq Caravanserais. In: Gülru Necipoglu (ed). 1997. Muqarnas XIV: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 80-95. Available online as a PDF document, 1.98 MB archnet.org/library/pubdownloader/pdf/8967/doc/DPC1304.pdf.


External links

  • : Text and photos on research on caravanserai and travel journeys in Central Asia and Middle East.